Dunn: “We Can’t Be 3-0 Down Before We Roll Our Sleeves Up.”

Manager David Dunn had some strong words to say after the game with Southend United last night.

Latics were defeated 5-2 in their own back yard, after trailing 2-0 at the half time break.

Michael Higdon had scored a double to get the scores back to 3-2 with 15 minutes to play but Southend scored two further goals to seal the win.

It was, however, the first half performance which particularly disappointed the manager.

He said: “We’ve gone on about it since the Barnsley game and I didn’t see anything there in the first half again.

“You can go on as much as you want but it’s got to come from within sometimes and I don’t see enough people out there taking responsibility for their own performance because that’s not good enough.

"We can’t be 3-0 down before we roll our sleeves up and start competing. We huffed and puffed and give it a bit of a go and got it back to 3-2 but then it was same old story. The goals are so soft.

“I’ll try and protect them as much as I can but you can’t legislate for some of those soft goals. It was soft goals to give away against a team like Southend who are organised and you give yourself an uphill task.

"We’ve got to quickly move on, as hard as it is to take. I’m pretty honest and that wasn’t good enough so I can understand everyone’s frustrations at times.

“To be honest, I thought the fans came out and kept singing along and they kept going and we gave them hope at the end, but we were nowhere near good enough.”

It was not for the lack of trying, however. “If you looked at chances created, we had 19 shots against their seven and it’s really disappointing,” admitted Dunn.

"This is the worst I’ve felt since I’ve been in charge. We’ve got to be more resilient but we are too easy to play against.”

Looking at positives in the game, the manager sighted two players for particular praise.

"I thought Mark Yeates was a threat all night. I thought Liam Kelly was exceptional. If we had 11 players with his desire then we certainly wouldn’t be where we are,” said the manager.